Watch the foreboding teaser for Game of Thrones series 7

The date for the latest series of the popular fantasy series has been revealed… in the daftest way possible

Video by The Skinny | 10 Mar 2017

Mark your diaries: we now have a date for the seventh series of Game of Thrones – the hugely popular fantasy drama will return to HBO on 16 July. For news of the return of one of the most exciting shows on TV, someone in the show's marketing department decided to reveal the date in the most boring way possible: by asking viewers to watch a huge hunk of ice melt.

Two and a half million people watched on Facebook Live as a giant rectangle of frozen H20 was reduced to a puddle, revealing the show's release date within. If you missed the fiery spectacle, and have too much time on your hands, you can watch again in the player below.

HBO also released a nifty animated (and ice-free) teaser for the new series. In the 90-second clip we hear snippets of dialogue from the previous series of Game of Thrones, played over a rotating stone sculpture showing the symbols of all the families battling for the Iron Throne of Westeros. As the sculpture rotates, the various creatures – dragons (Targaryen), wolves (Stark), lions (Lannister) – seem to be trying to claw their way to the top, but finally the whole thing crumbles into dust. It’s all very ominous, but gives little away about the upcoming series.

We presume that the seventh series will finally see Daenerys arrive in Westeros to kick arse with her army and dragons, but very little else is known. We’ll all have to wait till 16 July, when the new series begins on HBO and Sky Atlantic.